Humble to try bond issue again

2 new high schools included in package

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, August 1, 2002

After lengthy debate over financial risks, the Humble school board has called a Sept. 14 election on a $230 million bond package that includes funding for two new high schools.

The board's 6-1 vote late Tuesday moved forward with a new effort after last year's lopsided defeat of a $217 million bond proposal that brought one of the largest voter turnouts in the district's history.

Many opponents of that plan had complained that it excluded funding for even one new high school in the northeast Harris County district that serves 25,000 students.

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"There is a vacuum of information missing on finances right now," he said. "We cannot commit to it until we know we can afford it. We need to make sure that we do not bankrupt the district."

Superintendent Guy Sconzo said that, to allow for changes in growth or finances, state law does not bind a board to sell all bonds authorized in an election.

"It is our intent to build both high schools and open them at the same time. It is the best solution to avoid disruption of student communities," Sconzo said. "But if the Legislature passes a new finance law next June that does nothing for us and further hurts us, we may have to come back and make the difficult recommendation to delay."

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The financial picture is cloudy because the district cannot raise its tax rate to cover increased costs for operating the new schools.

Like more than 200 other Texas districts, Humble has reached a state-ordered $1.50 cap on its operating budget. The district's current rate of $1.74 per $100 of assessed valuation also includes 24 cents to cover outstanding debt.

Business manager Mike Novak projects that the bond proposal eventually will add $8.3 million to the district's operating expenses, including $5.5 million for the two new high schools. That would require budget cuts if lawmakers do not raise the cap or provide more funding.

The district already has cut $6.9 million in expenses to stay within the cap this year, Novak said.

Since taxes can't be increased for operations, the bond proposal projects that, at most, only a penny would be tacked onto the current tax rate to cover construction debt.

The only trustee voting against the proposal, Bob Strader, objected to the "all or nothing" approach. He wanted to split the $230 million into two propositions that would give voters a choice: one for $30 million to transform the Kingwood 9th Grade Campus into a high school and the Humble 9th Grade Campus into a middle school and another for $200 million for the other projects.

He noted that the $230 million proposal was based loosely on only an annual 1.5 percent salary increase for teachers, which would not be enough to stay competitive with other districts.

The proposal suggests possible ways to cut operating expenses if necessary, including increasing the pupil-teacher ratio, reducing staff support services and consolidating course offerings that have small enrollments.

Trustee Lynn Fields supported the bond proposal but said she is concerned about its chances at the polls.

"I know there are groups out there that don't support it," she said. "I just don't know how large they are, and we don't need another fiasco like the last one."

She said she had received numerous phone calls and e-mails expressing concern about such issues as the impact of low teacher salaries, program cuts and the loss of ninth-grade campuses being converted to other uses.

But five of the six residents who addressed the board Tuesday spoke for the proposal.

"I think it's a pretty darn good solution," said David Martin. "I've surveyed my neighborhood and residents are ready to put for-sale signs in their yards if this proposal is not passed."

Jim Eggers, an accountant who chaired the citizen committee that developed the proposal, said residents are unhappy that Humble and Kingwood high schools are among the 10 high schools in the state with the largest enrollments.

Eggers supports enrollments of about 2,000 students, which is half the size of Humble High. Supporters of smaller schools argue that they would be safer and allow students more individual attention and opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities.